


Shooting Star

by bravo_Stiles (Lorgo)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Ben Solo Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Gen, Pre-Slash, Scavenger Hux, Smuggler Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 10:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12862500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorgo/pseuds/bravo_Stiles
Summary: Jakku is a dead place, lost in space. Sometimes Armie dreams about flying away from here. He wants to discover the whole galaxy.He wishes his dream comes true.





	Shooting Star

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Падающая звезда](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10357461) by [bravo_Stiles (Lorgo)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorgo/pseuds/bravo_Stiles). 



> trying to translate this for practice. I'm not a native-speaker, so I'm sorry for mistakes.  
> unbeta'd

“For this you will have… half-portion,” Unkar Plutt muses, looking at a pile of stabilizer’s parts.

Armie mishears it, he’s sure. Last time he had three portions for the same staff. Kriff, three of them! It’s not so much but he could be satisfied for two days. He won’t stop untill he gets the same amount of portions.

“Last time you paid more”, he notes.

“Conditions have changed”, Plutt explains with scoffing voice.

Armie is almost mad. His voice is sweet to death. “Did you inform about it? Don’t you think that scavengers will find trader who pays more? If you make new idiotic trade rules, we’ll do. Three portions, or I take this away”.

“Do it,” Plutt agrees. “Go and look for another trader. I won’t hold you back”.

Of course Armie lies. Another trader lives in the next outpost. It takes a night to get there on his old speeder, and the conditions are even worse, probably. But he’s hungry at this moment. Very hungry. 

For a few seconds he thinks his lie helps and he’ll get his three portions. But all for nothing, in any case. Plutt has monopoly for trading here, they both know. But he tried. It’s sad he didn’t get better.

It’s painful for his pride to step back. But Plutt accidentally pulls a half-portion, and Armie desides to give up. Pride is good, food is better.

“I won’t do this just because I respect our long-term cooperation.”

“As you wish, kiddo,” Plutt smirks, taking the stabilizers away.

Armie grabs the payment quickly, turns around and goes away, back straight

 

*

 

He comes home, to the crashed Lambda-class T-4 shuttle. It’s hollow. Many years ago it lost wings.

He makes his dinner and eats it. The sunset makes the sand red in the window. It’s beautiful, but he sees it almost for twenty years.

He takes the fabric from arms and legs and lets the fresh evening air to cool him down. Later the weather goes cold and he will wrap himself with this old fabric again. But now he can relax.

He picks at his food, wondering if it is more delicious on other planets. Jakku is a dead place, lost in space. Sometimes Armie dreams about flying away from here and getting a job of a co-pilot. He wants to discover the whole galaxy, staying only on planets without sand and scorching sun, with plenty of food he can get easily and water he can drink without being in danger.

He wishes his dream comes true. Once Armie tried to find functional starship in the mess on the surface of Jakku. He checked almost every ship, but it was all for nothing. There were no live starships, not even one. Then he began to hope that someone will pick him up. Years went by, but no one had visited the planet. And those who did it… well, they were not burn with desire to offer him a job. And take him as passenger as well. Nobody wants to help for free, and Armie has no credits to pay. His hope is nearly dead, but sometimes becomes stronger. 

Ten years ago Armie had another wish. His parents flew away when he was five. They promised they would come back. He was waiting. He looked to the window in the night to find a shooting star that could possibly be a landing ship. But then he realized they would never come back. They left him, like he sometimes left useless parts in the desert. They forgot about him. He was useless for them.

At first he was angry with them. But he didn’t have time for that and was flat-out. When he was twelve, he didn’t live. He was surviving. Every evening he passed out after salvaging parts. Then the apathy took place of the offence. Armie didn’t blame his parents anymore. Anyone who leaves Jakku won’t come back. He would did the same.

No one wants to care about other’s child, and he became self-reliant. He studied the starships and did it well, though. Maybe at first he was confused and didn’t tell stabilizer from motivator, but later he did. He bought an old speeder at Platt’s exchange point when the raid to desert turned well. He learned the theory of flying, thanks to this purchase. Practice was less possible, but he was sure he would cope with this task.

It’s hard to survive on Jakku, but he gets used to it. Sometimes when raid is vain and he doesn’t find anything, it seems that he stacks in this situation and there’s no escape. Then he tries to pick himself up and do not think about it. He will be close to death if he gives up. If he does, he will never force himself to get up early morning and rush to the desert to find something for trade. He has to hold on for better life, which he’s sure he deserves. He just need more time. Despair is for weak ones.

He isn’t weak at all.

Armie eats up his half-portion. His stomach is still growling. Next morning he has to get up early and try to find something worth more than half-portion. He doesn’t want to starve again. Kriffing crolute must go to hell.

Armie wraps with fabric again, cleans the dishes and goes to bad. He looks at the window and notices the shooting star, nearly falling to sleep.

Well, he ignores it.

 

*

 

This time Armie goes deep into the desert. It doesn’t work, though. There’s not so many items for sale. However, he finds the motivator. It’s undamaged and not so old; in fact, it works. He can get at least two portions for this item. He decides not to be too excited for that. Plutt can “change the conditions” again for some reason.

It’s always boring to clean the items. But he has no choice. Sometimes lucky scavengers max out and hire someone to do this for them. Armie holds them in contempt. It’s just waste of ration packs. He would use it in more realistic way. Of course for eating. He doesn’t like to share his hard-earned food.

Armie cleans motivator, hating to do it, when something draws his attention. He looks up, noticing a stranger who walks through the crowd of scavengers. He wears a pilot jacket and tries to look like everyone here. Well, he doesn’t succeed.

Armie know everyone in Niima Outpost. He didn’t recognize this guy. That means…

He has a transport. Finally, Armie has a chance to escape from Jakku.

He stands up and waves to stranger. “Hey, you! Come here!”

The guy turns to Armie and hurries to him with a big smile on his face. Armie sits back and continues to clean the motivator. He’s not interested in him. He shows that he doesn’t lower himself.

“Hi there,” the guy offers his hand. Armie ignores it, and he puts his hand into pocket sheepishly.

“What are you doing all the way over here? We get visitors not so often” Armie asks, a bit presumptuous.

The guy shrugs. “I guess why. We’re in the middle of nowhere, huh. My name is Ben Solo. And you?”

“I’m Armitage Hux,” he puts on dog. He lets Ben think he’s the boss. “And you didn’t answer the question.”

Ben scratches his head. “Uhhhm… Motivator in my ship got broken when I flew past here, in short. Had to land. Do you know where to buy it in this place?”

Just now Armie wins life’s greatest prize. He has undamaged motivator in his hands. He can exchange it for a passenger seat on Ben’s ship. Perfect.

“You’re lucky. I have what you need,” Armie looks up and jolts the motivator roughly.

Ben looks happy, but he has shifty eyes. He hides something, probably.

“Wonderful. I just— I just don’t have enough credits, I guess. But we can make a deal. Do you need anything—” He lowers his voice. “Anything illegal in the New Republic?”

“Here? Are you serious? Do you know where we are?” Armie sniffs. “Other things are valuable here, Ben”

“I should try. Well, the answer is ‘no’?” Ben sighs, shrugging.

“Not exactly. We do make deal. I give you the motivator. You take me away from this planet.”

“You’re not a homebody, huh?” Ben chuckles, tucking his hair behind his ear.

Armie wants to make snide comment. But suddenly he has a bad feeling. He looks around without being seen. He’s right. Platt’s thugs are coming to them. 

That’s how the monopoly works. Unsanctioned trade is punishable. He’ll be injured or killed, then.

“I hope you know how to fight,” Armie whispers, reaching and grabbing his quaterstaff without being suspicious.

He expects Ben being surprised, but he immediately judges the situation and takes something off his belt.

Time goes faster now.

The thugs close them in from all angles. Armie jumps to his feet. hits one of them with well-directed blow to the head and kicks another one in the kidney. The third one attacks Ben. Armie hears the strange sound. Somebody screams. He’s attacked again, and the element of surprise has already blown. Armie hits and kicks, but the thug pushes him back from Ben. Armie injures the cutthroat’s shoulder — his arm is hanging. Before Armie feels satisfaction he is grabbed from behind, up from the ground. His arms are close to the body. He can’t even breath.

Armie never gives up, though. He smacks the attacker in the face with the back of the head. The thug screams, because he hits the target. He twitches, trying to kick him, smacks him again.

The strange sound is close to them.

Suddenly the attacker lets him go. Armie falls on the sand, trying to breath. The blood knocks in his ears, but he hears someone standing between him and the thugs.

He looks up. Wait, Ben protects him… with a lightsaber?

“If somebody else wants to talk, they’re welcome. There’s enough of me to go around” Ben says friendly.

The only attacker that survived raises his hands, showing that he’s giving up. Ben waits untill he steps back and then turns to Armie, switching off his saber. He offers Armie a hand, helping to stand up. And now Armie accepts that.

He is confused. “You could wait untill they kill me, and just take the motivator. You have no reason to protect me.”

“It’s not in my nature to abandon a friend in a time of need.”

“I’m not your friend. Technically, we just met.”

“Well, maybe now you are not. But we can become friends in the long flight away from here”

Armie catches his eyes, nearly black after the fight. He sees sympathy and… trust, for some reason. Just as one back-to-back fight gives Ben a guarantee that Armie won’t betray him.

Ben is too easy-mind. But Armie likes him.

He finds the motivator he lost in the fight in the stuck of items. Thank Stars, it’s safe.

“Let’s go. We have nothing to do here.”

 

*

 

Armie listens to Ben, climbing the dunes. He’s not able to stop talking about his business, “Millenium Falcon”. He explains that he was looking for the co-pilot. The former one ran away with all of the credits they have earned. No wonder he did it. Ben is too trusting.

Anyway, Armie will not give him up. Not after Ben saves his life. Not after he takes Armie away from kriffing Jakku to the stars and adventures.

They coming to “Millenium Falcon”. It looks like garbage more than anything on Jakku, but it’s okay.

Now Armie realizes that shooting star he saw yesterday means something.

It means freedom and better life.

It means he will never be alone again.


End file.
